MOOSE JAW — The Saskatchewan NDP is ringing the alarm bells over the fact that eight doctors have left Moose Jaw this year — although that number could increase further.
MLA Jared Clarke, the NDP’s shadow minister for rural and remote health, stood outside Dr. F.H. Wigmore Regional Hospital on Aug. 20 to discuss the concern.
He stated that an eighth physician will have left by late August, which is “a crisis” for residents who need care. The NDP has heard that some doctors — with nearly 4,000 patients — have retired, while others are leaving for other health-care centres in Saskatchewan, are taking on bureaucratic roles, or leaving the province altogether.
Clarke noted that the NDP spoke with some Moose Jaw doctors, who believe the community needs twice as many physicians “just to keep afloat.” Moreover, the NDP called every health clinic here and learned none was accepting new patients.
“If Saskatchewan’s fourth-largest city can’t keep its doctors, what does it say about the state of health care everywhere else in this province?” he said.
Clarke claimed that this issue was because of poor leadership, while he criticized the health minister and Moose Jaw’s two MLAs for lacking plans to address this problem. He thought residents should question their MLAs about how they intended to improve this situation.
MooseJawToday.com has heard from a source that two more doctors are expected to leave by November, bringing the total to 10 — or one-third of the city’s complement of physicians.
In response, Clarke said the loss of 10 doctors would be “a huge loss” for residents. He noted that a parent with a sick child may have to spend hours in the emergency room waiting for care if there aren’t any family doctors available.
“Even if you have a family doctor in the city, we know that the wait times to get in are (still) really long … ,” he remarked.
MooseJawToday.com asked Clarke whether the province’s two universities should prioritize Saskatchewan-born students for training seats instead of international students since the former are more likely to remain after graduation.
Clarke said that the two nursing colleges should “absolutely” take that step. Moreover, there should be more training seats for Saskatchewan-born students and more flexibility to ensure students who train in Saskatoon are guaranteed a spot to practice in their hometown.
The NDP MLA also noted that there are roughly 500 foreign-trained doctors in Saskatchewan who aren’t working and could address the shortage of physicians. He thought that “innovative thinking” was required to put these people to work.
Meanwhile, Clarke said the exodus of doctors is being seen across the province.
He noted that data showed there are 286 vacant physician positions in the province, while more doctors are leaving than choosing to call Saskatchewan home. Specifically, in 2023, he noted that four family doctors moved to Saskatchewan, while 26 left.
“That means we lost 22 family physicians that year. That’s the second-worst rate in all of Canada,” he remarked. “Now that’s on our government. They’ve been in power for 18 years and have put us in this position.”
He again accused the Sask. Party of making the problem worse, saying that sources have told the NDP that the SHA is allegedly “poaching” family doctors for hospital or administrative positions, piling “impossible workloads” onto the ones who remain, and driving other doctors out of the province.
The NDP MLA added that better recruitment and retention incentives are required, while the province must end policies that pull physicians away from patient care.
In an email, the provincial government said the SHA is working to fill current and upcoming physician vacancies, and since September 2022, when the Health Human Resources Action Plan began, nearly 512 physicians — 263 family doctors and 249 specialists — have established practices in Saskatchewan. Moreover, an additional 21 health-care professionals have been hired for Moose Jaw.
The email noted that the Ministry of Health is working with other partners to improve physician recruitment and retention, including expanding medical residency seats and post-graduate medical residency training sites in Moose Jaw and elsewhere.
The province accused the “lost and reckless NDP” of “drumming up hysteria” without offering any solutions or plans, not supporting the virtual physician program, and allegedly committing to destroying industries that fund public services.
“The NDP threaten your health-care with empty contradictions, while our government delivers care with consistent action,” the province added.
